For The Want Of A Sister, The Battle Was Lost
by Cybercitizen
Summary: Anna races across the frozen fjord to try and save her sister. Jumping in the way of Hans's sword, Anna saves Elsa from her fate... but loses something else in the process, something she can't get back. (Elsanna, Canon-divergent AU, Angst)


Anna rushed across the frozen fjord, the howling blizzard clouding her vision and the icy pain that was filling her chest. She'd been such a fool, a stupid fool. First, she'd tried to marry a man she just met, which caused her sister to flee into the mountains.

Second, that same sister apparently had magic ice powers that Anna hadn't been told about and had struck her in the heart. This meant Anna was freezing to death from the inside out. And finally, to top it all off, the man she tried to marry had now betrayed her, left her for dead and was out to kill Elsa.

To say Anna was having the worst day of her life was an understatement. She didn't know how she was going to get out of this mess, but she would fix this.. somehow. As she stumbled along the ice, hair turning white and skin turning blue, she felt her breath growing huskier.

Looking through the wind and ice, she could see the outlines of several people. One was probably her new friend Kristoff. Olaf had seen him from the window of the castle, so if Anna could get to anyone, it was probably him. She felt bad about this though.

Kristoff had been nice to her, bringing her to the trolls, helping her get back here. And she'd just left him and now he was going to die out in the blizzard along with anyone else. Even new friends weren't safe from the princess's screw-ups.

Groaning, Anna could feel the pain in her chest worsen. She didn't know what would happen if the ice penetrated her body, but she didn't care. The trolls suggested an act of true love would save her, but clearly, Elsa was right. Anna didn't know the meaning of the word.

Maybe this was her fate, doomed to die of her own mistakes. It was quite fitting in a way. She'd failed everyone she came into contact with. As Anna stumbled along the ice more, she saw the outline just in front of her become more clear.

Looking closely, Anna saw that the outline was indeed Kristoff. He was running towards her, as fast as he could. "Anna!" She heard him cry.

"Kristoff!" She weakly cried back, trying to reach out with her freezing hand. "H-Help!"

"I'm coming, hold on!" Anna's new friend told her, rushing along the snow. There was a sense of concern in his voice. He did care about Anna, but it was pointless. Anna was about to die.

Just then, however, Anna saw another silhouette on the horizon, a pair of silhouettes, in fact, both of them very familiar. One was Elsa, curled up on the ground, crying her eyes out in desperation. The other, Hans, the wicked prince having drawn his sword and holding it up.

At that moment, Anna's life had a purpose again. This was her chance to make things. It was her fault that Elsa was in this mess and it was her chance now to fix it. She then turned away from Kristoff, running forward. She saw Hans and Elsa didn't see her coming.

Hans was grinning maniacally, holding his blade into the air. Finally, he would end Elsa's life and become a hero in Arendelle's eyes. Everything had gone just like he had planned. But then, just as he was about to make the final blow...

"NO!" Anna cried, leaping into the path of Hans's sword. The blade connected with Anna's hand with a sickening crunch and squelch, before Anna's skin and entire body suddenly turned to ice, a shockwave knocking Hans back and causing him to smack his head on the ice.

Hearing the sound behind her, Elsa turned around. She gasped in horror, seeing her baby sister turned into a statue of ice. "Anna..." She whimpered, getting up and caressing her sister's frozen cheeks, an expression of fear on her face. "Oh no..."

She stared, looking straight into Anna's frozen, petrified gaze. Her heart sank as she saw what Anna had become. This was all her fault. First, Anna had lost her childhood, then her best friend and now her whole life because of her. The Queen's heart jumped a few beats.

"No... No..." Elsa started to cry, before wrapping her arms around her sister's frozen body, crying her eyes out. Everything was over now. Her sister was gone, as was all the memories they had cherished together. She clutched Anna's body tightly, not wanting to leave her side.

Her heart had shattered at that moment. Now all that was left of the woman she loved, her sister, her adorable baby sister, was just this frozen husk of a statue. Now, Elsa only wanted to die, to join Anna, along with their parents in that place beyond.

Pouring her heart out, Elsa continued to sob, wanting this pain to end. Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't she have controlled her curse better? She had paid the ultimate price and willingly accepted whatever fate had in store for her.

But then it seemed, fate wouldn't be as cruel as that. As Elsa continued to sob, she felt something warm on the statue. Pulling back a little, Elsa watched with surprise as her sister started to thaw. Her icy flesh soon returned to its pinky tones and her hair returned to its natural strawberry blonde, minus the white streak that had once been the bane of Elsa's existence.

Looking down, Anna weakly smiled at her sister, beaming with delight. "E-Elsa?"

"Anna!" Elsa cried with joy, pulling the other girl into a hug. "You're alive! My god... I thought I'd lost you." She kissed Anna's cheek softly, hugging her tightly.

Anna blushed, hugging Elsa back. "It's okay... I'm here now. I love you, Elsa." She said. But then the happy moment was interrupted by something horrible. As Anna tried to hug her sister back, she felt a sheer pain run through her arm.

Screaming, Anna pulled away and looked down at her hand, mortified by what she had seen. Her hand, or what was left of it, was a mangled mass of flesh, bone and still frozen pieces of Hans's weapon embedded into it. It was agony, as Anna dropped to the snow in pain.

"Anna!" Elsa cried, watching her sister cry out. She rushed to her side, comforting her. As she saw Anna's hand, her heart had sunk again. In saving her life, Anna had only caused more pain to herself. Elsa gulped, holding Anna.

The younger girl continued to scream and whine, clutching her wrist. The pain was unbearable. Blood was oozing out from several openings, and all at once. It looked a disgusting sight, one that almost made Elsa want to puke up.

"Elsa... help me..." Anna groaned, before collapsing into unconsciousness, as blood continued to pour from her wound. Elsa quickly caught Anna, cradling the younger girl in her arms. The Queen looked at her sister, her heart still in pain.

But no, she could help Anna. Anna had saved her life. Now it was time for Elsa to return the favour. "Don't worry, Anna," she said. "I got you."

xXx

Several hours later, Anna's eyes fluttered open to the sight of her own bedroom. Her memory was fuzzy, so she assumed the events of the fjord had been some strange, vivid dream. As her eyes looked around the blurred room, she soon saw Elsa, sat on a chair beside her bed.

The Queen was still in her ice dress and from the bags under her eyes, she looked as though she had been crying. Dried tears had been absorbed into her skin, the signs of the Queen's sadness. As Anna looked at her, Elsa's eyes turned, a warm smile forming on her face, before being discarded for a regretful gaze.

"E-Elsa?" Anna weakly spoke.

Elsa didn't speak, merely looking away. "Anna... you're awake."

The young princess sat up. "Yeah, looks like I'm okay now." She smiled, before looking down. "What's wrong? You look sad?"

"Just... go back to sleep," Elsa insisted. "You need your rest, you've been through a lot and it's been a long day. Please."

"No," Anna refused. "I'm wide awake now. I'm sure things are alright." She then felt a strange numbing sensation in her wrist, like there was something she just couldn't feel. "Hey... what's wrong with my hand? I can't feel anything from it."

"Don't look at it," Elsa pleaded. "I don't want you to feel worse than you already do. Please, you shouldn't bother with that now."

"Elsa, I'm sure it's..." Anna then pulled out her arm from under the bed covers and her heart sank. There had been a good reason she hadn't felt her arm and that was the fact that her right arm, from the elbow down, had been amputated, a bandaged stump in its place. "Fine."

Anna merely stared, seeing the blood bandages where her arm had once been. So it really had happened, Anna's thoughts said. She reached out with her other hand, stroking the stump. She felt no pain, no feeling at all. Her nerves had been completely cut.

Elsa sighed. "I'm sorry Anna. The damage was very extensive. The surgeon had no choice but to amputate. I... I tried using my powers as an anaesthetic, but I'm afraid the damage is done." She started to cry. "This is all my fault. If I hadn't-"

"No," Anna cut her sister off. "No, it's okay, Elsa. This wasn't your fault, this all on me."

"But, Anna, this is all my fault," Elsa argued. "It's been my fault from the very beginning. I hurt you again, don't you see?"

"Hurt me?" Anna asked, slightly confused. "Elsa, what are you talking about?"

It was then that Elsa remembered Anna didn't know, didn't remember the suffering both of them had been through. More pain wracked Elsa's chest. First Anna was scared physically, now the blonde had to drop this truth on her? Elsa didn't want to, but she knew Anna needed to know now.

Sighing, Elsa turned her gaze on Anna, stroking her cheek. "Anna... I want you to know that I'll always love you. You're my baby sister, and I would never hurt you intentionally, but... freezing your heart wasn't the first time I hit you by accident. I hit you in the head with my powers when were children. That's why you had a white streak in your hair."

Anna's eyes widened. "So that's why you had to be kept from me. Our parents didn't want you hurting me... and why you were so scared at the party." Her heart pounded a little. "Oh god... Elsa, I'm sorry. If I had known-"

"Don't apologise," Elsa insisted. "It's in the past now. We... We need to move forward and be better people now. We're together again, isn't this what you wanted?"

"Yes... but I didn't want you to have suffered like this?!" Anna shouted. "Our parents should never have kept you from me, Elsa. I loved you, spent all my time knocking at your door! If I have to lose an arm to see you, then so be it!"

"No, you didn't have to lose that arm!" Elsa shouted. "I should have been a better sister! I should have let that bastard Hans marry you. Then we wouldn't have fallen out!"

"Elsa. he plotted to kill us both!" Anna argued. "Would you rather we both have died than to have lived with this pain?!"

"Maybe I would!" Elsa growled back, before realising snowflakes had begun to form at the corners of the room. Anna realised it too and she calmed down, resting back on the bed. This wasn't a good situation for either of them.

Looking away, Elsa realised how desperate she had been to relieve herself of this pain all her life. She'd been hurt so much and now she was hurting more than ever. Part of her wanted to still go through with her original plan, to die in peace, but her sister needed her now.

She thought her sister had died because of her, and now she realised that a part of Anna really did. Even though Hans had been locked away in the dungeons now, his little scheme had long-lasting consequences on both of them.

Every moment Elsa looked at Anna's arm, she could hear Anna's cries of pain in her ears, the sickening sight of the mangled flesh and metal blades sticking out from her skin. This truly had been her fault, but she realised Anna didn't need this pain. They both didn't.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Anna," Elsa finally spoke. "For everything. I failed you as a sister."

"You didn't," Anna said, reaching out and holding Elsa's arm. "You didn't fail at all. You did beautifully." She then looked out of the window, seeing the snow had gone. "You controlled your powers... Arendelle's thawed."

"Yes... It took some doing, but I figured it out," Elsa said, feeling a bit of pride, but mostly regret. "But just because I saved the kingdom, doesn't mean I saved you. You're barely alive as it is. You lost so much blood, had to have your arm..."

"Yes, but we can keep going, right?" Anna wondered. "I mean, isn't still being alive a good thing? Even if one has lost... some body parts."

That brought a bit of a smile to Elsa's face. In a way her baby sister was right. Living, even living in pain, was better than being dead. Because Elsa knew Anna cared for her and would miss her if she was gone. She decided she would be better for Anna, be the better sister she always knew she was. She would show her the love and affection she deserved.

"Yes," Elsa confirmed, stroking Anna's cheek with her hand and smiling at her for the first time that evening. "We can keep going. I can keep going... for you." And then the Queen closed her eyes and planted a soft kiss upon Anna's lips.

xXx

**Author's note: **Sorry for any broken hearts with this story. I got the idea for this from reading a fic called Shattered Glass by Flyafar. It had a similar idea to this, Anna losing her arm. I just decided to do my own take on it. I may even add more to this setting, but we'll see. Hope ya'll like it (and not cry your eyes out.)


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